A FORMER county council health and safety officer has been told he can keep a £24,000 payout after his bosses failed to provide an appropriate workstation.

Kevin McGregor complained the council failed to provide him with an appropriate workstation for a medical complaint, a Manchester employment tribunal heard.

The hearing was told Mr McGregor, who lives in East Lancs, was forced to visit his GP, on several occasions, because of the posture he was forced to adopt at his desk.

Employment judge Nicholas Sherratt, sitting with two lay members, found that the county council had failed to make reasonable adjustments, when they asked him to work from their offices in Marsh Lane, Preston.

The panel also ruled that it had failed to provide an adequate workstation between May 24, 2016, and November 30, 2017.

Mr McGregor was awarded £19,581 for injury to his feelings and £2,983 in respect of lost earnings, following his disability discrimination claim.

Lawyers representing the county council applied for that decision to be overturned on three grounds.

Kashif Ali, for the county council told an Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing the original panel' was wrong to say that if a suitable computer had been provided, between July and December 2017, there was a 30 per cent chance he would have returned to work, given his later retirement due to ill health.

Mr Ali also questioned the level of damages awarded and whether Mr McGregor qualified for an 'uplift' in his payout.

But Mrs Justice Laing said Mr McGregor's condition "was not a scientific matter" and the original tribunal was entitled to make a "broad assessment of the percentage chances of the claimant going back to work."

The judge added: "One can only begin to imagine how demoralising, upsetting and humiliating it must have been for him to attend the office between May and July 2016, albeit on not very many occasions, with no reasonable adjustments in place and how upsetting it must have been for him to continue to realise that the reasonable adjustments had not been made."

The tribunal heard Mr McGregor had applied for retirement on medical grounds, which was granted in December 2017.